Candling…

[bangarain]

I have a 24 egg incubator this year (which I love so far) but I’m not sure how to handle candling with this many eggs! Last year it was only 7, so much easier to handle.

Would it be better to remove them all from the incubator at once to candle, or do 6 at a time?

I know that the temperature and humidity drop fairly quickly every time I open the incubator, so I’m not sure if it would be better to open four times (with the temp/humidity not likely being stable until after they’re all returned) or have them all out for as long as it takes to candle (but only have to open the incubator twice.)

 

[Bobmc914]

I think a lot of us stress too much over these things. Brooding hens will leave the nest for a while to eat, drink, and poop, so I try not to get too worried about lower temp and humidity for a little while.

I have a nurture right 360 and I just take the lid off and candle all of the eggs then put it back on. I try to candle twice. My first hatch I had 2 quitters out of 12, then one failed to hatch. My latest batch I just candled at day 14 and had 3 quitters. I'm not worried about the rest for the brief period out of the heat.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Not even a broody hen has 90-100% hatch rates all of the time.